Alastair Cook takes off the England armband but don't forget his successes amongst the stubbornness

Cook is the only cricket captain ever to win a series in both South Africa and India

Cook captained England to a series win in South Africa (Getty)

Discussing American Football recently, Malcolm Gladwell suggested that the sport’s problem is the “second conversation” surrounding it is of the concussion scandal. It is always there, simmering in the background.

For English cricket in recent months, the second conversation has been whether Alastair Cook will remain as Test captain. Ever since an interview before the winter Tests, in which Cook said that he was looking forward to playing without the armband, the future of his captaincy has been inescapable. It defined not merely the culmination of England’s 4-0 defeat in India, but also much of the limited overs leg in the new year too, even with Cook 5,000 miles away at home.

Cook survived similar speculation in 2014, after a dreadful run of seven defeats and no victories in nine Tests, but this time has decided to go with class and dignity. It is hard to fault his timing. The notion of there being a natural four-year cycle to the Test captaincy is perhaps a little too cute, but it is notable that England’s four longest serving captains before Cook - Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss - all departed after permanent stints between 45 and 52 games. Cook has captained England for a record 59 Tests, including 57 continuously since replacing Strauss as full-time skipper in the winter of 2012. Had he opted to stay on, Cook would have needed to commit to leading in England’s Test series against South Africa and the West Indies, and then the Ashes tour, taking him past 70 Tests.

He has achieved much. Most strikingly, Cook is the only captain in the history of the sport, not merely the only Englishman, to win a series in India and South Africa. He won two home Ashes victories and ushered in a new side, presiding over the transition of the England team from the team of Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Graeme Swann to the team of Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Barstow, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes. He won in India and a home Ashes series with the first crop, and in South Africa and a home Ashes with the second. Though never outstanding tactically, Cook became more flexible and relaxed with the new generation. Stubbornness did not impede him from evolving.

He did it all while, for the most part, continuing to score copious runs. As skipper, he scored 4844 runs at 46.57, slightly exceeding his average in the ranks of 46.36. But there have been signs that his output was heading south: in the 18 Tests in his last year as captain, Cook averaged fractionally under 40. And, for all the criticism he received - often brutal in 2014, much more restrained in the final throes of his reign - Cook retained a quiet dignity and affability. In an age of eulogising showy leadership, Cook has been a flagbearer for unobtrusiveness and decency - unglamorous qualities, yes, but no less valuable for that.

These are all significant and commendable achievements. Yet they should not obscure from a record that, in totality and even allowing for those flagship victories, was no more than middling. As full-time captain from 2012, Cook’s regime contained 22 victories, 22 losses and 13 draws. Some of these defeats - notably a home series loss to Sri Lanka, the Ashes whitewash in 2013/14, and a 1-1 draw in the Caribbean two years ago - were hugely disappointing. These results were all the more underwhelming considering England's unprecedented wealth - through the television deal with Sky and the Big Three takeover of the ICC in 2014, now being rolled back, England had unprecedented largesse to invest in players, specialist coaches and support staff and those just beneath the main squad - and how the country has historically prioritised Test cricket far more than most.

In the short-term, his resignation could be a boon for England. Cook, possibly shuffling down to number three, could well find his batting reinvigorated; aged 32, he is two-thirds the way towards usurping Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most runs in Test history.

Cook won two Ashes series as captain (Getty)

And the recent history of England Test captains, from Mike Atherton, to Andrew Strauss and then Cook himself, is of new leaders initially enjoy a boon in their own batting performances, which bodes well for Joe Root, long anointed as Cook’s inevitable successor. The start of his year will now bring the Test captaincy to go with fatherhood, even if the sum of his leadership experience - four first-class matches, one of which involved Middlesex chasing down 472 against his Yorkshire team - is trifling.

That is a reflection of deeper issues in English cricket: the lack of leadership experience of potential future national captains, because they barely play domestic cricket at all. Recognition of the problem has led England to hire a former army captain to imbue the next generation with leadership qualities - welcome, innovative thinking, even if only so much can be done to compensate for a paucity of captaincy experience on the pitch. As Root prepares to inherit the captaincy, the concern is less with his suitability to lead, than the unshakeable sense that there really is no other plausible candidate to replace Cook.